Dear AAUP-BHSNJ Faculty:

  We wanted to update you in several areas:

One Faculty Petition and Bargaining

           We are approaching 500 signatures!! This petition would combine our faculty union contracts and unlock greater bargaining power. This would enable us to deliver a better contract and in a more timely fashion. If you have not already done so, please sign our petition at www.onerutgersfaculty.org Our proposed contract language is ready to go.  Our first bargaining date to kick off negotiations is July 11th. We expect to start off talking about our job security proposals and efforts to stop faculty from being hired outside of the union through RWJBH.  See our story in the Star Ledger about this.  Please help us stay strong by signing our petition at www.onerutgersfaculty,org

Mitigation of Fringe Rates Legislation

      Through the hard-work of our union. PI Advisory group, we are pleased to announce there are two bills in Trenton that have been introduced to reduce the exorbitant fringe rates that our PIs use for grants. S4727 is sponsored by Senator Zwicker and A4164 is sponsored by Assembly Members Benson, Verelli and Reynolds-Jackson. As the state budget comes together, we hope to have a good news soon. If you can not yet sent an email to your legislator, you can do so here. 

Juneteenth

            Juneteenth, a holiday, was June 20th. It should be treated the same as any other holiday. If your department normally has a practice for giving comp days for working on holidays, that should apply to Juneteenth as well. 

Backup Child Care Coming Soon

            After much advocacy from Rutgers unions, including the AAUP-AFT, Rutgers will be launching a new benefit in the next couple of months. Faculty and staff will be eligible for a membership account with care.com where the University will cover up to 5 days per year of elder or childcare needs. Many other universities have such a benefit. We are pleased that Rutgers is finally catching up.  As more details become available, we will share them. 

Settlement on 6.5% MSO Tax for NJMS Clinical Faculty

           We are pleased to announce we reached agreement with Rutgers concerning the assessment of the extra 6.5% MSO tax during fiscal year 2021 (July 2020 through June 2021).  The total amount to be refunded to NJMS clinical faculty is $3,561,162.  The amount for each clinical faculty member who is entitled to a refund will appeared on this month’s Physician Allocation report from UPA as a separate line item labeled “FY2021 MSO Services Refund” and any refund to which you may be entitled was included in the June 10 paycheck. The dispute that led to this agreement concerned Rutgers attempting to claw back MSO monies for the time before our union contract was implemented and in violation of the UPA Principal Points Agreement.  We were honored to work along side the UPA Oversight Committee in fighting for the return of this money and achieving this positive result.   

             This is not the first time our union has been involved in protecting your paycheck. Earlier this year we, we discovered over 100 members throughout RBHS whom were not being paid according to the minimum pay standards, as well as several faculty members where the University forgot to pay annual raises. We were able to successfully correct both issues without the need for grievances. 

            When inflation is high, this shows you the importance of having a union to protect your income and the collections-based practice. The Variable Pay that you receive is essential in keeping you paid higher than national AAMC benchmarks. We fully expect the University to attempt to greatly reduce this Variable Pay in the upcoming contract negotiations and/or shift to a fundamentally different system. Just as we did with the 6.5% overtax, we will resist any efforts which would adversely effect you. 

Sincerely,

AAUP-BHSNJ

Diomedes Tsitouras

AAUP-BHSNJ

Executive Director